


Hug Won’t Fix

by MommyMaleficent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Comfort, Daddy Charming, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Infantilism, Light Angst, Mommy Maleficent, Mommy Snow, Non-Sexual Age Play, Nonverbal Communication, Separation Anxiety, little Emma, little Lily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 03:13:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12379734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MommyMaleficent/pseuds/MommyMaleficent
Summary: When Maleficent’s away, Lily won’t play. She won’t even talk. Emma does her best to help.





	Hug Won’t Fix

Everyone is nervous. Maleficent is nervous, David and Mary Margaret are nervous, Lily is nervous. For the most part, it seems only Emma is immune. It isn’t hard for Mary Margaret or David to tell she knows something’s up, but just can’t put her finger on exactly what.

“It’s just for a few hours,” Maleficent says quietly as they watch their daughters play on the soft rug in front of the sofa where they sat. She turns to them. “I’ll... be back before the evening is over.”

They nod. She won’t admit it, but they know.

“And we’ll take good care of her in the meanwhile,” says David.

Mary Margaret offers a soft smile. “Trust me, we won’t let anything happen to her.” A solemn promise.

Maleficent nods in return, taking in a deep breath. “I know you won’t.”

When it’s time to say goodbye at the door, Lily hugs her mother tight and doesn’t let go. She buries her face into Maleficent’s shoulder and her mother cradles her head just like David is wont to do for Emma. But eventually, Maleficent pries her daughter away, and the Charming parents can see there are tears in her eyes despite the smile she puts on.

Maleficent lifts Lily’s chin. “I’ll come back soon, Lily. You be good for Snow and Charming, and play nice with Emma, okay, dear?”

Lily nods. She hugs her mother again, and Maleficent plants a loud kiss to her cheek before pulling away.

She smiles at Emma, who returns it wholeheartedly, and nods one final time to Mary Margaret and David. Then, without looking back as she opens and closes the door, she leaves.

The Charming parents brace themselves for the ear-shattering meltdown.

* * *

Emma watches the door close shut behind Lily’s mommy before she looks to Lily, her best friend, her favorite playmate. She knows how sad Lily must feel watching her mommy leave. She knows because when her mommy and daddy leave, Emma’s always sad even though she knows they’ll come back, and when they do she’s already happy again and having fun with her sitter so seeing them again makes her even happier.

And today, Mommy and Daddy are Lily’s sitters. And little Emma promised she’d do everything to help Lily be happy while her mommy’s gone.

So that’s ‘zactly what she’s gonna do.

Picking herself up from off the floor makes her diaper crinkle as she moves, the only sound in the room. Lily is looking down at her feet, folding her hands into fists. She’s crying quietly to herself.

Emma hurries to her, wrapping her arms around Lily to hug her. Before she can tell her everything’s gonna be okay, Lily jumps and pushes her away. Lily pushes so hard Emma almost falls down. She bites back her own tears and the hard hurty lump growing in her throat. And then she tries again.

“Emma,” Mommy says, “Sweetie, I don’t think Lily wants a hug right now.”

“Hug Lily,” Emma says seriously. “Hug good. No sad. Emma help make better.”

So she hugs again. But this time Lily stomps her foot and pushes harder and Emma falls down on her butt. Pearly hot tears come back, blurring her vision and spilling down her cheeks. She balls up her fists too.

“MAMA!” she wails, turning and reaching for Mommy. Emma swallows some breath and picks herself up again, running right into Mommy’s warm waiting arms to cry. She closes her eyes as Mommy rubs her hair and kisses the back of her head, and rubs her hurty bottom and tells her she’s okay.

“Daddy’s got Lily, Emma, it’s okay...” Mommy whispers. She picks Emma up and carries her away, going up the stairs. Emma cries still, face hiding in Mommy’s shoulder, arms wrapped around Mommy’s neck.

“Lily mean!” she sobs, sniffles, “She bad!”

“True, what Lily did wasn’t very nice...” Mommy says. She takes a moment to close a door and then put Emma down on her soft blanket on the floor in her room. When Emma lets go, Mommy lifts her chin and looks into her eyes. “But Lily did make it very clear the first time she didn’t want a hug, baby. Did you not hear Mommy say so too?”

Emma tries to blink away more tears, chin wobbling as Mommy sits down next to her on her blanket. “B-but... but hug help! Emma h-help—”

Mommy smiles and nods. She puts a cool hand to Emma’s hot face and strokes it with her thumb. “I know you were just trying to help, sweetheart, and I’m sure Lily knows that too. Hugs might help Emma feel better when she’s sad, but Lily isn’t Emma, is she?” Emma shakes her head. “No. That’s right. Emma and Lily are two different people and they need different things to help them feel better. Emma likes hugs, Lily might like something else. So if Lily doesn’t want a hug, what should Emma do?”

Emma sniffles. “No give Lily hug, Mommy. Hug bad.”

Even though Mommy sighs, she’s still smiling. “No, Emma, hugs aren’t bad. Hugs are still good. But if Lily doesn’t want one, you don’t try to force it on her, okay? That would be a very mean thing for you to do, and you’re not mean, are you?” Emma shakes her head.

“Me nice. Wub Lily. But Lily sad. Mommy go ‘way...” With a pout, Emma looks at her mommy. “Emma still wan’ help.”

Mommy thinks for a moment, tapping her cheek. Then she smiles again. “You know how you can start?” Emma smiles too.

“How?”

“When we go back downstairs, you can tell Lily you’re sorry.”

Emma pouts again. “Okaaaaay...”

* * *

When Mommy and Emma come back downstairs, Emma looks around for Lily. She just finds Daddy at the kitchen table looking at his phone. She and Mommy walk up to him, Emma leading Mommy by the hand.

“Daddy, where Lily?” she asks, tugging his shirt sleeve, “Gotta tell her som’din’.”

Daddy looks up from his phone. “Can it wait, Emma? Lily has another two minutes to go in her timeout. She’s in the living room.”

So Emma waits. Daddy lets her watch the timer on his phone until the two minutes are up. Then she goes straight into the living room. Finding Lily sitting quietly in a corner, she taps her shoulder.

“Timeout done, Lily,” she says, “‘N ‘m sowwy I hugged you when you dinnit want a hug. I was mean. You ‘kay?”

Lily turns in her seat and looks at Emma. Her eyes are red and puffy from crying. She doesn’t nod or say she’s okay or anything. She sniffles, and pulls her legs up so her knees are touching her chest, and she hides her face in them and doesn’t come out for a long time.

Emma runs back to her mommy and daddy for help.

* * *

Mommy suggests putting on a fun movie. Lily can join when she wants to.

“Hmmm... what’s a good, fun movie both you girls like? Let me see..” says Mommy softly as she looks through their video tapes, “Snow White? Sleeping Beauty? Robin Hood? Winnie the Pooh?”

“Pooh! Pooh!” Emma squeals, jumping up and down, “Lily likes Pooh too! She likes Eeeeeyore.”

Mommy laughs. “Pooh it is then!” She pops in the tape and goes to make snacks in the kitchen for Emma and Lily to eat later. Mommy and Daddy make the best snacks.

Emma sits on the couch, far away from the TV like a good girl, and swings her legs, hitting the bottom of it with the backs of her feetsies. She hums to the opening song to the Pooh TV show. Every few minutes she looks to Lily to see if she wants to watch with her yet.

Halfway into the second Pooh story, Lily gets up from the timeout chair and comes to the couch. She sits down next to Emma and quickly lies down, resting her head in Emma’s lap, curling into a ball.

Emma smiles down at her. “Wub you, Lily.”

Lily says nothing. But she does offer Emma her hand to hold, and Emma holds it. Lily sniffles, and squeezes.

When she looks up again, Emma can see Mommy and Daddy watching them from the kitchen. They are both smiling at her, and Emma smiles back.

Lily doesn’t like hugs. She likes hand-holding.

And that’s just as good.


End file.
